The Eucharist Transforms Lives

by Fr. Robert Aliunzi  |  08/03/2024  |  Weekly Reflection

Dear Friends,

We have just concluded the National Eucharistic Revival in the United States, which ran from July 17-21. By all accounts, it was said to have been one of the most successful Catholic revivals in our country and the first in 83 years. Over 60,000 Catholics attended, enthusiastically participating in Eucharistic Processions and Adoration, and had many opportunities to listen to inspiring speeches. This number included more than 1,100 priests, 1,200 religious, 600 deacons, 600 seminarians, and 200 bishops and cardinals.

One recommendation of this National Eucharistic Revival was to continue reflecting on the Eucharist from John 6, the Bread of Life Discourse. Our homilies are centered on the Eucharist, beginning with the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time on July 28 and ending with the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time on August 25.

So, in my space this week, allow me to share with you a great article written by one of my former parishioners at St Andrew the Apostle, Charles Johnson, who is also the author of “The Beauty of the Mass.” Like the National Eucharistic Revival, his article was inspired by recent research that revealed that nearly 70% of Catholics in the United States do not believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. He begins with a quote from St. Cyril of Jerusalem which says: Since Christ Himself has said, “This is My Body” who shall dare to doubt that It is His Body? – St. Cyril of Jerusalem.

He then goes on to write: “I’ve been a Christian my entire life. I was baptized as a Presbyterian when I was an infant, I went on to attend Mass with my mother, and a Presbyterian Church with my father. What one we went to depended on a multitude of factors, but it would be easy to say that I was a Christian without a denomination. As I grew older, I was drawn more to evangelical Protestantism, partly because of the music, partly because of the message, but mainly because it aligned with my political worldview. I admired the reformers because I had seen them through the lens of antiauthoritarian freedom fighters, on the level of Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, James Madison, and all my other heroes from American history.

But I was never truly sold on Protestant theology. On the surface, I was happy with where I was at, but when I dug down to what a particular church really taught and believed, it never satisfied me. My primary concern was how all these churches that interpret the Bible so literally, would just gloss over John chapter 6 like it never even existed. So, I began to examine it myself, and where it led me still amazes me to this day.

It all begins with taking Jesus at His word. When He is teaching via a parable, He will let you know. Whenever He says, “amen, amen” or “truly, truly,” what follows is a literal statement. Such as:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever. “John 6 52-58

I have yet to meet a Protestant who takes this literally (they wouldn’t be Protestant if they did), but while many churches claim the title of “Bible-believing” or “Bible-based church,” they just gloss over this. At communion services, you never would hear John 6, or anything close, and you could count on hearing the words “symbol”, “represents,” and “symbolic” at least a handful of times, but never an explanation of why we aren’t taking Jesus at His word. The whole doctrine of Sola Scriptura goes out the window when they start adding how it’s a symbol of his body.

Toward the conclusion of His discourse, John tells us that “many of His disciples” left and returned to their former lives. Jesus never makes an attempt to alleviate their concerns. In fact, when the murmuring first started, He doubled down on His statement. When asked if they (the Apostles) also wanted to leave, Simon Peter answered him: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. John 6:68. He never tried to clarify it to the Apostles, and they accepted it because they knew He was the Messiah.

Nowhere in the entire discourse, does Jesus say that it’s a symbol. This always bothered me; how can churches that claim to accept the entire Bible literally say this is just a symbol? It was this line of thinking that was the first thing to start drawing me towards the Church that Christ founded. If the Eucharist contains the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ, then what else that the Church teaches is true? I discovered that the answer to that is… everything. Once you breach that wall, there is no going back and OCIA is in your future for sure. It was the truth and beauty of the Eucharist that confirmed for me that I belonged in the Catholic Church.

I love you!